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Topic: this year's planting so far (Read 3709 times)

I've decided I'm not starting massive quantities of things from seed this year like last year. It took too much work, too much space in my tiny house, and waaaay too many pots. Several of which broke all over the carpet both due to my error and the help of a mischievous kitten. To avoid having more soil in the house than in the garden I'm using mostly stuff that can be direct sown and then buying my veggie plants already started later in the year. I don't actually eat that many vegetables anyway. So after seed buying this weekend for this year's gardens (I won't even try to add up all the square footage) I have planned:

Herb garden:true lavender-possibly not hardy to this zone but oh welllavender verasweet marjoram-also probably annual here but it grew well while it had the chance last yearborageparsleymesculin mix-to fill in around the herbsPerennials that should have survived the winter include, fennel-hopefully, 2 varities of thyme, lemon balm, orange mint, catnip, chives, and catmintaround the edge of the herb garden are strips of strawberries with a blueberry bush at each corner. I might have to replace a blueberry or 2 due to the rabbits. We'll see what sprouts this spring.

flower gardens:snapdragons plus there were 2 varieties last year that will probably reseedblue flaxlupinecoreopsisdelphiniumsmonarda didymamonarda lambadawallflowercolumbine

At the end of the veggie and random mix garden:poppyforget-me-notfoxglovelarkspursweet peaflowering kalegiant patch of sunflowers using a 50lb bag of black oil sunflower seeds and a few really pretty "ruby eclipse"- google it if you want since I can't post a link

I probably don't even want to attempt to list what has run wild across the property over the years. There's a wall of raspberry bushes where the mowing stops and patches of sweet william, wild phlox, sweet rocket, something that looks like bachelor buttons but regrows every year in zone 5 :? ... etc... and some grape vines that have to have been planted before I was born. I made some wonderful homemade grape juice out of them last year and hope to try wine this year.

Akane, oh wow, what a beautiful list. I am familiar with about 95% of these plants, and you will do well to have all these grow. I have tired of sowing so many seeds in my greenhouse. Did that for years, I had an oil-heated greenhouse, many benches with growing lights, and I worked big time in my greenhouses. So much work. Don't want to go there anymore. We are moving sometime, so I will not be setting many annuals to the soil this year, the perennials will take over the job of the annuals. So much is up in the air with when the move will take place, that I just can't spend time to work this soil. Very, very difficult to deal with, as I am a person that loves to live in the garden and just sleep in the house.

Your aspirations of these beautiful plants you have set my mind's eye to see is nothing short of beautiful and wonderful. When all is said and done this spring/summer and your gardens and property are in all their glory, be sure to take some time to take pictures to show all your new forum friends. I love to see the gardens -- the pride the gardener should hold in the palm of their hand MUST be shared by these photographs, and I just have to say, bring them on!!! I wish more members would post pictures of their gardens and flowers.....have that most wonderful and beautiful day, life, attract great and wonderful health too. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I have a couple pictures from last year but I can't post links yet. Looking at the pics did remind me there was a beautiful patch of nasturtiums that grew around my chives. I didn't really care if they grew or intend for the result but wanted to fill in around my tiny newly started chive plants and so threw a bunch of mixed colored nasturtium seeds down. They went nuts and made a solid canopy of leaves and flowers over my chives. I wonder if they managed to reseed themselves.

Realizing I probably needed more blueberries and lamenting my dead butterfly bush I wandered off to an online nursery after posting my previous list and came out with 2 bicolor butterfly bushes, 3 new blueberries, a perennial sunflower that I already forget the name of, and sagina-a mossy evergreen groundcover. Then they threw in some banana pepper seeds for free. Wait didn't I say I wasn't starting things in the house... darn them now I must plant peppers when they arrive. :roll: If you love blueberries go grab a sunshine blue while they are in stock online at parkseed. These are wonderful little compact bushes that withstand alkaline soil (I get a ph of 8 here before adding composted manure), don't need a 2nd bush to pollinate and produce berries, produce a fair amount of berries, and fit in a pot or whatever little corner of the garden you want. They are also the only blueberry I haven't killed through neglect or gardening mistakes. I just had to have more of them. Make sure to fence them off though because the rabbits love them even more than I do.

I have a few :rulez: I adhere to when selecting garden plants, shrubs, or trees.1. It must produce a flower attractive to honey bees for pollen and nectar.2. It must produce and edible food item for my family members.3. It's by products must be consumable by my livestock.4. It must require little maintenence.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

I buy most of my veggies already started. Otherwise it would be impossible to get variety from a small garden for my family. I only need 4 yellow sqaush for example. 4 cucumbers, but lots of tomatoes. I also buy starter onion plants and stuff. I gave up on seeds as I only needed about 8 of each variety and the mess was never ending. I get better vegggies, more variety and can experiment w/ new variety by buyinh jusdt 2 or 4 of a new veggie and see if I like it and it likes my yard. I agree w/ Brian, low maintanance. If it desnt survive, I dont replant next year.

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"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

I read(don't know it this is true or not) that borage improves the taste of tomatoes if they are planted close to one another.Joan

Well Joan, that is an interesting thought. Ever chewed on a borage flower? Reminiscent of fish oil to me. The leaves smell like cucumber when crushed, they apparently make great salad greens, actually never tried them though. I would wonder what the borage would do to make a tomato taste better, that needs some investigation, smiling. Have a great and most wonderful day, Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Invest in something to hold it up with. Perennial Sunflowers are notorious for falling over. Even the woody ones.

The Ant Garden This year I'm hoping to get a colony of Trilliums established. Apparently the seeds are sugar coated and distributed by ants. The same goes for Birdsfoot violet which I'm also buying and hoping to establish. Lupinus perennis is a host plant to an endangered butterfly who's caterpillar is a social parasite of ant colony brood. Other member of butterflies that do this are in the Legume family; peas, which I'm also planting.

All my gardens are fenced or they'd be destroyed so all I have to do is stick things like sunflowers or sweat peas along an edge. With 100+ ft by 50ft in the main garden that's not hard to do. Pretty much everything I chose does have a point. Ok so the flowering kale was just cool. ;) Most of those plants are on some bird, bee, butterfly, or other insect list. My herb gardens are all edibles. Even nasturtiums and snapdragon flowers are edible if you wanted to eat them. Snapdragons are variable though and sometimes don't taste that good so they are more for no maintenance color filler until the perennial herbs grow in better.

I read(don't know it this is true or not) that borage improves the taste of tomatoes if they are planted close to one another.

Joan

Yes, borage or thyme grown amoungst the tomatoes helps keep the aphids and other pests off the plants. I've been planting thyme amid my tomatoes for several years now, ever since I heard about it, and I get nice tomatoes and I've seen no insect pests on the plants.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Nope, not planting any, but to answer your question, yes they will collect the pollen from the male plants but there is no THC in the pollen so your desired effect will not happen even if you collect and consume the pollen. :(

Now in the fall you could collect the propolis, the resin which is THC off the female plants. There are quite a few uses for that...

dang looks like some full time gardeners here, how you find time to work a Job, Bjorn I figured you would ask that, you always seemed the age of the Dooby Brothers :-D , was you at wood stock? FLOWER POWERS TO THE CHILDREN!!!! :pinkelephant: :lau:

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THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic

Bwahhhhh!!! All this gardening talk is killing me. I am such a gardener, remember me talking about that plaque that my Niece gave me that says "I live in the garden, I just sleep in the house". Well that is true. Five acres of fun to play and garden. I can't dabble my hands too much in the dirt. I don't know if any prospective buyers for our property will be avid gardeners, and it would be pointless to do too much gardening, only enough to keep me a teeny tiny bit satisfied. I can't stop all the plants that self-seed around here. I am going to miss the gardening this year, almost cryin' here.......

MILTA, Cerinthe Major. I planted that the year before last and I found that the honeybee was not overly interested, but the bombus loved it, just for your information. That was the most beautiful electric blue coloured flower I have ever seen, runs close to the blue of the Cyrstal Palace lobelia shade, unimaginable. Cerinthe now self-seeds everywhere around here. It is such a floppy plant, that it would do well to hang in a hanging basket. The drooping stems have the flowers in clusters very similar to borage or comfrey. These (and they are very similar shades of blue too), the drooping stems in a hanging basket would do well to show off the gorgeous blooms. I think I have a picture of cerinthe, beautiful, beautiful. Have a most wonderfully awesome day, life, health, Cindi

Cerinthe major in the forefront, the large plant and Crystal Palace Lobelia the small blue plant on the right hand side, the blues are very similar in the real life

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service